TAD Review- Andre's Portfolio

Hey there! my names Andre Sutherland, I'm 19 years old, I live in a suburb just out of Melbourne in Australia and one day I hope to become a concept artist. I am currently studying 1st year Game Design at RMIT but feel its not the right place for me, no art classes at all just programming at 3D.

Next year I am determined to apply for TAD 2D Entertainment Design, but due to money restraints I will need to get to scholarship level.
The moment I heard about the options to study online I couldn't get the idea out of my head and really hope to study there one day in the future.

In terms of a portfolio review/critique, I'm seeing very few finished, production-ready works. City approach shot that looks super Feng Zhu? Awesome, I love it long time. Skull study? Awesome. Your others... I would love to see at the level you had your skull study at.

I'm liking the sickly red cloaked figure you have, and the foot soldiers are also a good starting point for a finished production piece. A question I ask myself when I'm making concept art is this, "Can a 3D modeler make a full on high res model just from this image alone?" There's a bit of vagueness in your foot soldier image, mostly fuzzy edges and vague details, and that's completely alright where you are right now

I'd say at this point, take one of your soldiers and reference and paint every detail of the armor they're wearing. Figure how the helmet operates, how the shoulder armor connects to the chest piece, detailing on the arm guards. Another thought is, what is this foot soldier doing specifically? Guard duty? Knee deep in zombie ass kicking? Royal secret service foot soldiers? Magic? Is he the heavy brute or an average guy. The more of a backstory you put together for him (or her!), more of those "well, he should actually have punch daggers and a warhammer if he's killing zombies all day, and lighter armor since he's in a swamp everyday" moments.

I agree with Sizzle, show us more completed hi-res work, this will show your true potential.

The studies are very cool, the skull study being the best in my opinoin. But I think that in terms of portfolio it would be nice to have them inserted into some sort of environment, even as simple as it gets. A blue and cloudless sky is enough. It can give you a new perspective over your character and see what colors and shapes it fits best.

And remember, concept art involves tons of research. And if you add a backstory in your concepts, it's a very welcome plus. Figure out how everything works in your concept, and the reason they're there, even if it doesn't have a functional purpose. I think the more you can care about the concept, the more it is successful.